Bits bytes & Binary

Oct 23, 2015 at 10:48am
closed account (1vD3vCM9)
Hey there, thanks for reading this.
I have programmed c++ for almost 4 months now, and it came to my attention that I MUST understand bits bytes and binary.
The only thing I understand from those 3 subjects is binary, how to convert integers into binary.
In this way:

I want to convert 18 into binary
128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1
18-16=2
2-1=1
0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0
That is true.
Can you explain how to convert from binary to decimal?
And the basics of bits and bytes?
Thanks.


Oct 25, 2015 at 6:27am
closed account (1vD3vCM9)
No one? Well then.
Oct 25, 2015 at 7:03am
Each digit in binary represents a power of two. In base 10, the rightmost is 20=1, then next is 21=2, then 22=3, and so on. If you sum those values you have the value of the whole number. Just do the arithmetic in base 10 and you'll have the answer.

A bit is a digit in binary; that is, it can hold a value of either 0 or 1.

A byte is, by common convention, just a sequence of 8 bits. Interpreted as a number, then, you could say a byte stores a number from 0 to 255.

These articles might be helpful in identifying what you don't know about these subjects so you can ask a more targeted question:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_number
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